Evolution of Violence asks how violence becomes interwoven into the fabric of a society. Profiles and interviews reveal how individual lives are shaped by ongoing atrocities. Journalists wait to report on the next murder victim, a social worker helps the relatives of women who have been killed, former rebels mourn their comrades, and a war criminal has nightmares about all the things he's done. While offering a profile of the ongoing violence in today's society, the film looks to historical events — told through the use of archival footage — from Guatemala's colonial history and place in the global banana trade, to the roots of its 36-year civil war, to try to understand how a culture of violence is created.